Preface

This literature review, one of eight commissioned by the Special Assistant to
the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Gulf War Illnesses, summarizes the existing
scientific literature on the health effects of depleted uranium that may have
affected service members who served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert
Storm and recommends additional areas of research where appropriate. The eight
RAND reviews are intended to complement efforts by the Defense Department and
other federal agencies as they attempt to understand the full range of health
implications of service in that conflict.

While many veterans have reported an array of physical and mental health
complaints since the war, it is not yet clear the extent to which veterans are
experiencing either higher-than-expected rates of identifiable illnesses with
known etiologies or any other illnesses from as yet unidentified origins.

The other seven RAND literature reviews deal with chemical and biological
warfare agents, oil well fires, pesticides, pyridostigmine bromide,
immunizations, infectious diseases, and stress. The topics of these reviews
all represent plausible causes of some of the illnesses Gulf War veterans have
reported.

The reviews are intended principally to summarize the scientific literature on
the known health effects of given exposures to these risk factors. Where
available evidence permits, the reviews also summarize what is known about the
range of actual exposures in the Gulf and assess the plausibility of the risk
factor at-hand as a cause of illnesses. Statements related to the Gulf War
experience should be regarded as suggestive rather than definitive, for much
more research both on health effects and exposures remains to be completed
before definitive statements are made.

These reviews are limited to literature published or accepted for publication
in peer-reviewed journals, books, government publications, and conference
proceedings. Unpublished information was occasionally used, but only to
develop hypotheses.

This work is sponsored by the Office of the Special Assistant and was carried
out jointly by RAND Health's Center for Military Health Policy Research and the
Forces and Resources Policy Center of the National Defense Research Institute,
a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Office of
the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the unified commands, and the
defense agencies.